16:1 Send the lambs to the ruler of the land from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Zion, |
16:2 For it shall be that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be at the fords of Arnon. |
16:3 "Take counsel, do judgment; make your shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; do not betray the fugitive. |
16:4 Let my outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be a shelter to them from the face of the destroyer; for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. |
16:5 And in mercy the throne shall be established; and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice, and speeding the cause of righteousness." |
16:6 We have heard of the pride of Moab; very proud; even of his vanity, and his pride, and his rage; but his boasts shall not be so. |
16:7 Therefore Moab shall howl; everyone of Moab shall howl. All of it shall howl for the sweet cakes of Kir Hareseth; surely they are stricken, |
16:8 For Heshbon's fields and the vine of Sibmah waste away. The lords of the nations have crushed its choice plants, they have come to Jazer, they wander in the wilderness; her branches are stretched out, they have crossed over the sea. |
16:9 On account of this I will weep with the weeping of Jazer, the vine of Sibmah. I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; for the battle shout has fallen on your fruit and on your harvest. |
16:10 And gladness and joy are taken away out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there is no singing and no shouting. No one treads out wine in the presses; I have made their shouting to cease. |
16:11 Therefore my heart shall mourn like a lyre for Moab, and my bowels for Kir Hareseth. |
16:12 And it shall come to pass when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, he shall come to his sacred place to pray; but he shall not prevail. |
16:13 This is the word that the LORD has spoken earlier concerning Moab. |
16:14 But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be abased with all her great host and the remnant shall be very small and feeble." |